http://elearningindustry.

com/how-gamification-reshapes-learning

Introduction
BY CHRISTOPHER PAPPAS
No Game, No Gain!
Dedicated Learning Professionals and Educators across the globe were
until recently desperately seeking for ways, methods and techniques to
engage employees and students in the learning process. Surprisingly
enough no one would think that games was the answer. After all, games
tend to increase learners natural desire for competition, goal
achievement, and genuine self-expression, while they also promote
interactivity, have rules, a quantifiable outcome, and can be colorful,
appealing, and extremely realistic.
Enter Gamification
Gamification is the use of game thinking and mechanics in a non-game
context to inspire employees and students to get engaged in the learning
process. The word itself was launched in 2002 by Nick Pelling, a British IT
expert, but wasnt widely used until 2010. Based on extended research
conducted by numerous educational institutions, what makes games
effective for learning is the learners level of activity, motivation,
interactivity and engagement. This increases their fluid, as well as
crystallized intelligence, something that by definition optimizes learning.
The Most Effective Uses of Gamification in Learning!
In this Free How Gamification Reshapes Learning ebook you will find
useful information about Gamification, its applications, and impact on
the reshaping oflearning, provided by 23 Gamification professionals.
They were all carefully selected based on their specialized knowledge on
Gamification, education and business, as well as their innovative projects
in this field. They share their wisdom and provide tips on the effective
use of Gamification in the learning process.

Enjoy reading the 2nd of our recently launched free Learning eBooks
series and feel free to contact our top-notch Gamification
professionals for more information.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY AN COPPENS
In my view we always learn better when the experience is FUN. As a
trainer, I often used games to illustrate behaviors and to bring home
important points in a training session. What I found is that how we do one
thing is how we do other things too, so our choices in a game very often
reflect how we would behave in a real life scenario.
Where possible, I convince clients to put their learners in the driving seat
and then build decision points in a learning experience based on relevant
situations and choices with the same instant feedback as you would
receive in a game. For example, in a recent eLearning workshop on
environmental awareness, I created the choices the learner could make
and based on each choice they had different consequences; some staff
followed procedures, some got fined and a rare few would end up in jail
for serious law violations.
A great game typically has a compelling storyline with a plot where the
player becomes the main protagonist and hero on a journey through a
number of challenges. I believe this is where learning meets a
combination of Hollywood and multi-player online game. You need a good
plot and a series of lifelike challenges for the learner with increasing
levels of difficulty.
I am currently scoping a simulation for media planners in the television
industry, where the learner becomes a media planner with an increasing
portfolio of advertising to place in the TV-schedule based on rules and
regulations of the company, how it was sold by sales team, as well as the
industry standards. The journey and choices you make could have you

promoted to specialist, generalist, team leader or in the worst case

scenario fined and fired. By introducing different challenges with
increasing levels of difficulty you mimic the learning curve of a new
employee and options the employees really have to make. The added
bonus of an in-company game is that you can play against your
colleagues and even your managers, which adds the psychological driver
of peer pressure and team fun with visual scores and leaderboards.
Gamification in learning works best when you make the learner think and
you let them experience the consequences of their choices.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY ANDREW HUGHES
Increased user retention is key to any effective application of
Gamification. When users remember the learning material, apply it to their
real lives, and come back to learn more, you know your project has been
successful. This is the ultimate achievement for any educator or business
professional looking to take full advantage of Gamified training.
Our team at Designing Digitally, Inc. has had the opportunity to work with
an extensive variety of clients, and whether our clients are business
professionals or are attached to a university or government agency, they
all are looking for ways to ensure users take what theyve learned away
with them and apply it to their daily lives. Through my own experiences,
Ive found that the best way to achieve a projects learning goals is by
leveraging the benefits that game mechanics provide, particularly
mechanics that promote social interaction and competition.
One of my favorite examples of this is from our own teams work. Using
Gamification and the Microsoft Kinect, we developed a tool that enables
patients recovering from strokes to practice relearning the skills theyll use
at home. By simulating the actual tasks they will perform in a safe virtual
environment, they are able to return more easily to their usual daily
routines. All of this is wrapped up in an immersive, engaging platform with

a competitive social scoring system where users can earn badges and
compare their performance to both to their own past results and to other
users results.
Gamification can transform your material into something meaningful that
users will carry with them long after theyve finished your training. Try it
out in your own projects. I guarantee the results are worth it.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY ANYA ANDREWS, PH.D., PMP
Besides the learner audience engagement and development of target
behaviors through the power of gameplay, the most effective uses of
gamification in learning should capitalize on its ability to transform the
learning process. To be considered transformative, gamification efforts
must produce a high-impact positive change for a given learning
environment instead of making it just a little more fun for the learners.
When I think about transformation, I always remember a project for a
Navy client who asked my team to explore the potential of incorporating
gameplay into an existing leadership training program, or, in other words,
gamifying it. Considering that back in 2007, the term gamification had
not yet gained the popularity it enjoys today, our project officially focused
on creating a serious game to foster leadership skills of junior officer staff.
The produced serious game was based on a collection of sea stories
illustrating real-life leadership challenges and included a healthy
combination of narrative, challenge, meaningful choice, achievement, and
other great elements of gameplay. The game was very well received
within the Navy and even earned several awards, which made my team
extremely happy. However, what mattered most was the fact that, by way
of this game, the existing learning process (jokingly referred to by our
Navy friends as GSAT: Guys Sitting Around the Table) was transformed
into a compelling, context-driven, self-reinforcing learning experience that
allowed the learners to explore a multi-dimensional slice of reality instead
of simply reviewing a case study book. In todays terms, we would say
that the existing learning process became gamified.

Whether gamification is viewed as a set of strategies, tactics, or products

for learning, its most effective uses will always be those that enable a
significantly positive change to meet the needs of a particular learning
environment

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY AUSTIN L. MEREDITH
In our day and age where distance education participation is emerging,
new methods of increasing learners' interests are in high demand. The
recent development of gamification meets this need, and has captured
the attention of not only learners, but also of institutions seeking to
increase user participation and retention. Gamification is a trend expected
to expand, especially in the use of teaching those with learning
disabilities. I, myself, have Attention Deficit Disorder and along with other
people experiencing the same issue have reacted positively to courses
with gamification elements. Those of us who suffer from ADD or ADHD
can get easily distracted from learning, because it can become a
monotonous practice of regurgitating the information learned. By adding
engaging elements to educational material, gamification significantly
helps in capturing the attention of those that have a hard time focusing on
learning in a normal setting. Not only is information retention increased,
but adding these elements creates a positive association with learning,
which is very difficult for those with attention disorders. I believe that in
the next few years there will be a need for adding gamification elements
to learning for those with various learning disabilities.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY BRYAN AUSTIN

The holy grail of corporate learning is to improve job performance. There

are several challenges that make this extraordinarily difficult, including:

Are there enough skill application-level exercises and scenarios in the

training? Complex skills cannot be assimilated in minutes it takes
hours of practice.

Is the training engaging and challenging enough to capture the best

efforts of the learner to master the skills?

Will the learner develop enough confidence through the training to

actually apply the new skills on the job?

Is the training followed with the needed reinforcement and coaching to

anchor the knowledge or skill?

Ive been in corporate learning for 25 years and have never witnessed
more impactful learning outcomes and performance improvement than
those produced by game-based simulations.
We provided online game-based negotiation training to a California-based
agency that works with businesses to get their state taxes current. At the
conclusion of the training, we conducted a group exercise, where each
group was given a case study and was asked to create a solution.
According to the training team lead, The participants were able to apply
what they have learned in the game and discuss it with the other students
and instructors. This exercise solidified and grounded the training into real
life situations that employees may experience, and allowed them to see a
new way to approach each scenario.
I saw a difference in how the pilot group approached a scenario, applied
techniques that were clearly learned from the course, and came up with
win-win situations for both the agency and the public.
From a learning transference perspective, the training lead is impressed
with the performance impact of the game. Several weeks after the
training, I received responses from several participants. Each said they
selected cases other employees were unable to resolve, and using the
techniques taught in the game, they approached the cases from an

entirely new perspective. They worked with the business owner to

negotiate a solution that allowed the taxpayer to resolve their issues, and
the state to clear the account. In all cases, the taxpayer expressed
satisfaction with the outcome.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY JAMES BOWEN, PHD, PMP
Gamification can shift the motivation for learning from extrinsic to intrinsic.
Games are a way to experience the world in ways not possible in reality
and thus tap into a natural learning process and enjoyment. In education,
gamification can create learning environments that condense the learning
time of key ideas and allow students the possibility to explore concepts
while enhancing the natural intrinsic motivation of learning. This
interaction with a simulated environment leads to a higher level of
engagement.
Experiential Simulations Entrepreneurship game Traction has
gamification elements, such as leaderboards, badges, competition, and
feedback. Players experience a start-up environment both post and prerevenue while maximizing the overall game score. Players can collect
badges for completion of product testing or obtainment of standards.
Obtaining badges and other achievements within the game have a
random element associated with them. This random element means that
the reward isn't predetermined from a given set of actions, which makes
the accomplishment more enjoyable.
This mixture of randomness mirrors reality in startup environment. The
entrepreneurial world is characterized by uncertainly, information deficits
and randomness. Real world entrepreneurs tend to be extrinsically and
intrinsically motivated. The struggle to succeed -despite many setbackstypically requires a high degree of intrinsic motivation for an entrepreneur.
Thus, Traction helps create this intrinsic motivation through the use of
gamification elements, such as badges, scores and leaderboards. The

enjoyment of achievement and exploring while playing Traction tends to

create a deeper level of knowledge.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY JOHN CARLOS LOZANO
Basic gaming principles are well known: challenges, points, rewards. Yet,
an important strategy that has the potential to revolutionize training and
performance improvement is to approach gamification holistically. Lets
step into the shoes of the learner and think about his or her experience.
The first moment of truth occurs on a macro level, when learners first
interact with a learning portal. Within the portal, the curriculum (you might
call it the portals nervous system) defines and connects all the learning
paths. If the curriculum is difficult to understand, its a de-motivator: think
back to college when you tried to figure out the right classes you needed
to graduate. An easy and engaging user experience will guide and
motivate learners, which we know is the key to the portals adoption.
This is where gamification is your friend. Gamification helps learners
interact with the curriculum in a different way, and forces portal designers
to think more critically about user interface, improving the experience.
Heres just one example: allow learners to collect badges by completing
certain courses. Badges in turn increase the learners overall rank, and
unlock other more challenging courses. Now, learners have a clear
picture of the path ahead of them and have fun along the way.
The second moment of truth happens at the micro level, when learners
experience their first learning event. At this level, a reward system
provides guidance and engagement similar to the portal (macro) level. A
sales course we recently developed had the goal of dispelling
misconceptions about a product line: if learners could correctly identify
the clients misconceptions, they would earn a medal and unlock a
humorous 3D animated video.

When thinking gamification, think holistically. Create a fun and

engaging user experience, while guiding and motivating learners to
acquire the knowledge and skills that will improve their performance, and
you will accomplish your overall business objectives. Its a win-win
situation!
Discover more effective gamification techniques from John-Carlos at the
SweetRush website: Creative Design for Engagement.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY KARL M. KAPP
Why are games fun? Why do we engage in games? The answer is
because they have the elements of challenge, mastery, fun and
socialization. These are the elements of games that we can leveraged to
promote learning.
An example of this in a classroom setting is to use game elements in a
presentation. First divide the audience into two teams and give them
instructions on how to use their cell phones to text answers via an
audience response system (I use PollEverywhere.com). Then, ask a
question and have audience members respond to the question via a text
answer. In real-time the learners can see their teams answers as a
percentage of respondents for each choice versus the other teams
answers. This allows learners to feel they are part of a larger social group
(their team) and they are challenged to answer the questions. After all the
audience responses are collected, reveal the correct answer. Whenever I
use this technique, I find a great deal of laughter and fun during the
presentation because the elements of games keep it fun as well as
educational.
Another example is to start the learning event with a challenge. Humans
love challenges and its a large part of why we play games and it is a
great design tool for creating gamification. So rather than start an
eLearning lesson or classroom lecture with a list of objectives, instead,

start with a challenge. For example here are two typical objectives for
teaching skills required during an audit:

Adhere to the proper policy for providing information to clients

Understand what is permissible to share with clients and what is not

Scrap the objectives and provide the learner with a challenge:

You are gathering data during the first day of an audit. During lunch, Mary
approaches you and tells you that she has something important to
discuss. The two of you go to your office and she makes an accusation
that the VP of Finance is hiding an account
What is the first thing you should do?
Which learning environment would you rather step into? You can still
study the proper policy and what can be shared with clients, but now you
are doing it in the context of a challenge and a story and it is far more
engaging than learning content listed in a bulleted format and more
educationally sound.
Effective gamification taps into emotions, challenge, socialization and
mastery.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY KIRSTY CHADWICK
Gamification is an extremely effective concept that helps learners retain
the maximum amount of information by providing them with audio and
visual stimulants, and encouraging them to explore their environment in
order to attain rewards. Gamification enables learning at a faster pace in
a forgiving environment, which allows for risk-free mistakes. Even if
youre not a gamer, you are likely to be intrigued by the tasks presented

in a gamified training course, and this will encourage you to continue

exploring.
Recently we created a training course for a client that contained a number
of legal terms that employees were struggling to digest. The gamified
solution that we provided them with was an island where learners had to
explore and complete tasks in order to be able to move to the next part of
the game. The legal terms were turned into fun quizzes with visual aids to
help learners remember what they had been taught. Finding all the vital
information on this island required them to use their own initiative to figure
out where to go and what to do next. As they completed the tasks, they
were given immediate feedback, which encouraged them to continue to
their quest.
Gamification transforms the chore of seemingly tedious training into
employee interest and enthusiasm.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY MARIGO RAFTOPOULOS
The Learner as a Hero
Engagement and motivation are at the heart of the gamification of
learning. The learning industry has been built on a solid platform of
efficiency, accuracy and throughput. However, what we need now is to
think more like game designers, so that we move away from a contentpush approach to one that entices people on a quest to learn.
I had been using games and game elements in my corporate work for a
long time. Nevertheless, it wasn't until my son encountered learning
difficulties at school that I truly appreciated the power of games to
transform the environments in which we learn. After trying many different
ways to engage him with learning, it was playing the game of Civilization
that provided an immersive environment that enabled him to learn. We
soon discovered that it wasnt my son that had the learning difficulty, but
the environment that had a teaching difficulty.

The game of Civilization, like most well-designed games, tap key intrinsic
motivators that hold the player during gameplay (and in my sons case, to
learn how to read and do math). For example:

The player is a hero on a journey to build an empire, who then

Solves a series of problems that will grow, improve and defend the
empire, who then

Encounters a series of challenges that include exploration, warfare,

trade, diplomacy, resource allocation and advancing technology

Notice that I didn't mention game mechanics? They are only there to
provide feedback on performance and results and are not the core
experience. The most effective use of gamification in learning is to create
an overall context and narrative, and then select the most appropriate
game elements to create an immersive experience to take a player on a
journey.
My advice to learning professionals when working with software vendors,
subject matter experts, instructional designers and stakeholders is to take
control over their project:

You are designing learning experiences , therefore what sort of off-line,

augmented, playful and gameful experiences are you using to
complement your traditional e-learning modules?

Take another look at your learner personas and rebuild them a different
way. What sort of 'players' are they? What motivates them? What is
their heros journey?

What is your organisation's story, and is your learning woven into its
fabric? This makes all your organisational learning meaningful and
purposeful to your learners.

There is no boring content, only boring delivery.

This approach requires a systemic rethink and redesign of how we

engage and motivate people to learn. A great start is to think of

instructors as game masters, and our learners as players so we can

begin to challenge traditional assumptions about learning and instruction
to create better experiences for our learners.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY MARINA ARSHAVSKIY
I believe that gamification is very useful for increasing employee
engagement, developing leadership skills, and encouraging cultural
changes.
I look at gamification as the application of gaming mechanics to nongaming environments. For example, gaming elements, such as points,
badges, achievements, competition, etc., can be easily transferred to real
life. Think of credit cards: the more you shop, the more points you get.
Then, these points can be redeemed for cash, gift cards, etc. You are
much more likely to use the same credit card if you receive points that
add up to rewards.
ELearning gamification should resemble real-life situations and
experiences. It should be fun and engaging. The luxury hotel chain
Marriott offers a gaming application called My Marriot Hotel to recruit
employees. As part of the game, individuals can create their own hotel
restaurant, purchase supplies for the kitchen, manage orders from the
chefs, and even hire staff. Players are motivated by a point system
players gain points if the customers are satisfied, and lose them if they
provide poor service. The goal is to help people acquire new knowledge
and skills and apply that newly acquired knowledge to the real hotel to fill
one of the many job openings available across the globe. The My Marriot
Hotel game contains the essential elements of gamification, including
goal-setting, an instant feedback system, interactive competition, virtual
rewards, and leveling up within a program or application.
When instructional designers create games, they should try to extract the
motivational techniques from these games and use them for life-

applicable learning. Gamification works much better than traditional

training methods because people typically enjoy actively engaging and
competing with others. Games provide safe environments for practice,
while teaching essential knowledge and skills.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY MARIO HERGER
When I watch my young children exploring the world, they literally kill
themselves out of curiosity, if my wife and me werent keeping them from
getting seriously hurt. Nothing is safe from our three boys, as they touch,
explore, and play with things. And have fun. But when they will become
teenagers, they will just hang in the classroom like rotten meat. If we
destroy their natural curiosity, they will become totally unengaged and
cynical. Nothing would seem to engage them anymore, except
videogames. Here they can spend hours playing, engaging, and learning;
but not in the traditional way. When do you remember reading a manual
teaching you how to play Angry Birds or Candy Crush?
Play is important for learning. According to a report on educational games
presented by Don Menn at the 2006 Summit of the Federation of
American Scientists, students recall just 10% of what they read and 20%
of what they hear. If there are visuals accompanying an oral presentation,
the number rises to 30%, and if they observe someone carrying out an
action while explaining it, 50%. But students remember 90% "if they do
the job themselves, even if only as a simulation".
So why do we still design our educational systems in a way that actually
kills curiosity and doesnt emphasize on immersive experiences? Such a
traditional design wastes a tremendous amount of human potential and
its time we upgrade our 19th century education system to the 21st. For
that we have to overcome prejudices (we have serious work to do and no
time for fun), and accept that teachers and teaching need to change.

Good teachers knew that all along, and the lessons that Mary Poppins
taught us are more than just fiction. Keep the play in learning, and avoid
killing curiosity

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY MICHAEL HUGOS
Techniques from real-time strategy games (RTSs) and massively
multiplayer online games (MMOs) offer field-tested examples for teaching
complex skills to large numbers of people in a way that is engaging, and
encourages them to continue learning. Such games employ two key
techniques. The first one is the use of 3D virtual worlds to show players
what is happening. These 3D virtual worlds are highly effective because
the human brain is capable of handling enormous amounts of data if it is
presented as moving three dimensional images; thats how we see the
real world. The second technique is the use of heads-up displays (HUDs)
that provide players with real-time displays of data in the form of graphs
and numbers. Players can customize their HUDs to get the information
they need.
RTS and MMO games are, in effect, interactive simulations where players
learn by doing. They try things, and see what works and what does not.
And they get to practice what does work, and get better and better. This
speaks directly to that old saying, Tell me, and Ill forget. Show me, and
Ill remember. Involve me, and Ill learn.
My company employs techniques from these games in an online learning
application called SCM Globe. It is an interactive simulation that provides
a 3D virtual world and customizable HUD to enable students to design
and simulate the operations of real or fictional company supply chains.
Using simulation results, students improve the design of their supply
chains until they achieve the results they want. In the process they learn
about the operations of global supply chains. As students design supply
chains and simulate their operations, they experience the challenges and
dilemmas that all supply chain managers encounter. Students learn by

doing, and can experience frustration in the process of finding out what
works. Yet, I notice that whatever happens, students start speaking and
thinking like real supply chain managers as they describe their problems
and discuss possible solutions. In doing so, they are integrating large
amounts of information and achieving levels of professional
understanding every bit as relevant in the real world as in the simulated
world of SCM Globe. Students are involved and learning.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY MICHAEL OSBORNE
Ten years ago, classroom-based business simulations were novel and
intriguing. Today, the world has changed. More and more companies now
look online for training. Serious games and e-learning have become more
mainstream and this is a trend that is becoming increasingly mobile.
Keeping up-to-date with technology trends is essential for any business
and for ProfitAbility, this is no different.
My role at ProfitAbility has been to create an online platform to digitise
existing and creating new business simulations. So, when moving online,
what changes? Why not do a straight translation?
The answer, in short, is the User Experience (UX). In the classroom, a
large group of participants split into competitive teams and determined to
outperform each other generates a huge buzz. Take that away, disperse
the teams, and what are you left with? The simulation can still work the
same, but the experience is very different. Suddenly youre on your own no friends to ask, no Facilitator to guide you or instruct you on what do
next. Finding yourself in this situation is very daunting off-putting even.
So how do you maintain the participants interest and keep them
motivated? How do you make the actions to complete obvious to the
user and show their progression? The solution is to gamify!

Gamification can massively boost participant and client

engagement!
The most effective uses of gamification in learning are:
Illustrating progress
Increasing engagement
Creating challenges
Instilling a sense of accomplishment
Gamification can make e-learning beautifully intuitive. For example,
building in levels is not just a great way of showing progress, it also
allows you to start with the basics and get more complex as their
understanding of the content develops.
By gamifying, you harness the power of what humans inherently love to
do play games.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY NATALIE DENMEADE
Gamification has been simply defined as the use of game-like elements in
non-game settings. However, ever since the serpent challenged Eve to
imagine what life would be like if she partook of the tree of knowledge,
people interested in behaviour changes (aka educators) have been
implementing a whole range of game-like elements: imaginative role-play,
simulation, rewards, goals, challenges, etc.
I am not convinced that education is a 'non-game context'; according to
Shakespeare neither is life, as we are all merely players.
Educators know that play is the highest form of research. I prefer this
definition: Gamification is the process of using game like thinking and
dynamics to engage audiences and solve problems. Our western
education system has always been gamified at a systemic level, but it will
evolve into a 'post-industrial' phase. We have new cultural and global
problems to solve and educators agree that there is room for

improvement in engagement levels; this is where education and games

diverge.
Personally I am green with envy at game designers who can attract such
high rates of engagement and build resilience in their players. I envy their
budgets and their brilliance at invoking evolutionary human traits to their
benefit. I admire the respect game designers have attributed to players
and hence avoided the condescension and authoritarianism often
associated with teachers.
So, I intend to deconstruct their magical formulas and steal their insights
and modify my own teaching practices accordingly. To date I have
discerned that the main way gamification reshapes learning is by
permitting learners to set and understand their own goals; by re-defining
failure; and by changing feedback to be fair, frequent, granular, and not
fully contingent on the teacher. Codeacademy.com is the best example I
have seen to empower learners to feel like a hero through gamification.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY DR. PANAGIOTIS ZAHARIAS
My experience with gamification for the advancement of learning comes
from two experiments that I conducted in two separate classes in a higher
education environment. Both had to do with teaching IT skills. The first
one was a class about web design:

I designed the course and the activities, so as to have the

Codecademy platform as the main platform for teaching and practicing
web design skills (Html, CSS and Javascript). Codecademy offers
game mechanics such as points and badges and the vast majority of
the students (78%) stated that they highly enjoyed earning points and
badges and that it was something to keep them engaged.

Besides using the platform in the classroom, I was asking students to

practice at home and send me a snapshot of their dashboard just

before every class. By checking this, I developed a leaderboard where

students on top were the ones with many points and badges. Although
not all of them liked this kind of competition (around 50% said that they
liked the leaderboard), most of them (78%) said that this was a
motivating factor for more hard work and participation outside the
classroom.
The second class was an Introduction to Programming. Edmodo was
chosen as the main platform for communication and management of
learning activities. The course was gamified through the following
mechanics:

There was a mission (programming exercise) every week for the

students outside the classroom. Upon completion of the mission and
the submission of their work, students were gaining experience points
and according to their performance they were awarded with Edmodo
badges (i.e. hard worker, student of the month, homework helper etc.).

Participation and engagement was very high, as 87% of the students

followed the missions and submitted their work. Almost 60% said that
awarding badges was a good thing and a motivating factor, while 93%
liked the missions and the fact that they gained experience points.

Lessons learned: Although gamification is not effective for everyone and

besides the fact that a limited gamification approach was implemented
(limited to points, badges and leaderboards), I saw that most of the
students enjoyed it and it seems that benefits in terms of active
participation and engagement are great. It is evident that more advanced
approaches are needed to further explore the learning effectiveness of
gamification in education. First empirical data show that it is worth the
effort.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY ROMAN RACKWITZ

When I failed my 8th grade, most adults thought that the reason was
simply that I had been distracted by videogames. Although I spent much
less time playing than doing sports, it was (and obviously still is) the
common perception that often games are responsible for undesirable
results in school.
But now, just for a second, lets change this perspective. Think about this:
Why blame a game for being so engaging and motivating that school
seems to be so damn boring in comparison to it? Shouldnt we learn from
the best and try to fix whats wrong with education? Or in a nutshell:
Dont blame the gamer, blame the game.
Games are artificial learning environments. There is no game without a
challenge that you have to overcome. We love to be challenged. Our
brain is a learning engine and it was developed only for this one purpose.
By deconstructing games and reverse-engineering what makes them
successful to engage, challenge and keep us focused you should
consider this:
1. You have to know the individual students and you have to design their
own Path to Mastery adapted to their personal skills & needs.
2. Provide real-time feedback. Learning means trial and error and only by
providing real-time feedback we feel comfortable to try something new
and difficult because we can adjust our actions accordingly. In school
normally we get feedback when it is already too late, right?
3. Respect the psychology of our species, e.g. build on progress rather
than penalty. If students have the feeling that they can only progress
but not lose already earned achievements they become much more
confident and gain a feeling of autonomy.
4. Context beats pure content. We humans are bad at just memorizing
stuff. There is a reason why games are created around themes, why
we remember great stories better than simple bullet points, or why
storytelling is such a powerful marketing tool. Embrace intrinsic
motivators like power, autonomy and belonging.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY ROSS SMITH
Play is a natural way for animals to learn. From sparring tiger cubs to rolypoly puppies, all animals have used play to learn the skills of adulthood.
Games provide structure and rules for play invented rules help keep the
participants engaged and motivated. As we narrow down to the human
world of learning, and sprinkle in the current technological capabilities, the
mechanics of games become an intriguing tool to assist in motivation and
engagement. In 1958, Michael Polanyi introduced the idea of tacit
knowledge in his work on Personal Knowledge and while game
mechanics can help measure explicit knowledge, its the ability of games
to motivate the acquisition of tacit knowledge that is the most exciting.
Tacit knowledge is that we cannot describe how to ride a bike for
example and is not a realm of formal study. However, in an organization,
this is the most impactful on productivity, retention, organizational health
and effectiveness. Game mechanics help attract, direct, and engage
people in behaviors that drive organizational learning and the spread of
tacit knowledge. The existence of games at work are an aberration
unexpected, and thereby attractive in their uniqueness and incredibly
effective in motivating behaviors designed to encourage the spread of
tacit knowledge.
Practically speaking, much has been written of our work in assessing the
linguistic quality of Windows (link) but is a great example of how
gamification can motivate the transfer of tacit knowledge (software
language localization in this case) via the use of game elements. Beyond
this, there are hundreds of examples of using games to help keep
learners engaged. Our work has been focused on the use of games in the
enterprise, and the ability of game mechanics to motivate employees to
engage and collaborate to share their tacit knowledge is unparalleled.
The organizational rewards are obvious, but to be able to offer a return to
employees is the value that game mechanics can offer. As we think about
21st century learning, particularly in business, the idea of using play and

games to help employees share tacit knowledge is as natural as what the

sparring tiger cubs have already learned games and play can help us
learn from each other what we dont realize we know. Tacit knowledge is
required to succeed in life, and as an organization.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY B. SANTHOSH KUMAR
We, human beings, are natural gamers! In our childhood, we freely
exhibit and experience our liking for games. However, when we grow up,
while some of us are lucky enough to carry this interest forward, others let
go of it due to various reasons. However, the fact is that most of us still
have a liking to play games if and when given an opportunity. This, as we
know, is basically because games are fun, engaging, challenging, and,
above all, motivating. Last but not the least, games allow us to fail again
and again, and reflect on these failures till we win by going through
multiple lives, which would otherwise only be a beautiful dream in our
real lives.
Those of us who think were not for games, are actually (unknowingly)
engaging with interesting elements of gamification while interacting with
social networking sites and others (in the form of Progress Bars, Likes,
Ratings, etc.).
In my two decades of career in Learning Design (in the role of
researching, designing, managing, and delivering learning for some of
the best known schools, institutions, and organizations worldwide), Ive
experienced the magical power of gamification in learning, and was lucky
enough to work on opportunities to tap its power to help make learning
fun and engaging (for kids and for adults, in face-to-face sessions and
in online learning courses). All this happened much before this
methodology was seriously considered as a valid learning strategy by the
industry. Even though the methodologies vary, Ive seen gamification to
be highly powerful for learners of any age, and for the different modes of
learning.

Gamification is evolving to become one of the most powerful driving

forces for learner engagement. Here are some of the most effective uses
of Gamification in workplace learning:

Gamification is the future of workplace learning. It can power up

learning, which like many other areas, fosters active engagement.
Gamified learning is already helping make organizational L&D areas,
such as onboarding, sales training, safety training, and compliance
training (and even the more complex areas such as knowledge
management, process adherence, business ethics, and business
continuity management) engaging and impactful, resulting in highly
productive employees and meaningful ROIs for organizations across
the world.

Gamification can boost the adoption of mobile learning in workplaces. It

can achieve this by adding a layer of competition to the byte-sized,
just-in-time and performance support learning interventions that are
specifically made available for learners through their workplace app
stores.

Gamification can impact informal (on-the-job) and social learning (peer

learning) in workplaces by bringing in excitement into the collaborative
learning space. It can be one of the most effective driving factors in this
age of self-directed learning, where learners themselves take
responsibility for their learning activities.

Gamification can power up corporate MOOCs by fostering learner

engagement, which otherwise could pose various challenges. Some of
the more complex gamification elements and mechanics (such as
competitions and bonuses) are powerful enough to prevent learners
from dropping out of corporate MOOCs by making learning challenging
and addictive.

Gamification can enhance the effectiveness of flipped classrooms in

workplaces by motivating learners to do their individual research (as
part of their homework), as well as collaborative practice and
application (as part of their classwork), in a highly compelling and
competitive manner.

Gamification can boost Bring-Your-Own-Devices (BYOD) in

workplaces, by motivating learners to engage more with workplace
learning interventions.

To conclude, it is exciting to see how gamification is all set to reshape

learning. As Karl Kapp said in his interview with Learnnovators,
Gamification will disrupt many of todays learning approaches. It
wouldnt be a surprise to see points and badges (and other complex
gamification elements) playing a major role in our profile credentials and
hiring decisions in the near future. However, as being widely discussed,
only good gamification will succeed, for which proper design is the key.
And, a proper gamification design demands a diverse and distinctive set
of qualities and competencies. As Learning Designers, this is the time for
us to step up to upskill ourselves to design and deliver effective gamified
learning experiences for todays workplaces.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY SHARON BOLLER
Games are powerful engagement tools. They trigger emotion, fuel
competitive spirit (or a cooperative spirit if designed as a cooperative
game), and immerse us. These attributes make them powerful as learning
tools, too. I have used games or gamification techniques in a variety of
situations. Here are four situations that I think are all good uses of either a
game or a gamification of the learning experience:

People need to know something "cold" (e.g. from memory, sort of like
multiplication tables) and it's not information that is enjoyable or easy to
learn on its own.

People's hearts and emotions need to be affected in order to open up

to new ways of viewing or understanding something.

People need a safe way to evaluate their skills and behaviors and to
improve them. Example: People who think they are stellar at project
management can play a project management game and get an entirely
new insight into how they ACTUALLY behave when faced with
constraints or pressures.

People need ongoing motivation in order to stay engaged in a longterm endeavor (a certification process, a long-term company initiative).

Example: We worked with a global company this year to prepare sales

reps for the launch of a new product AND their first-ever Android
Smartphones. We created a mobile game that helped them build their
product knowledge, as well as skills in navigating the phone and
accessing information. They loved competing, achieving new levels, and
seeing their scores go up. The games challenges and feedback kept
them highly engaged, and by the end of the game, they were adept at
linking product features and benefits to specific customer questions and
objections AND in using their phones.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY SHERRY JONES
Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) is the pedagogical method of
teaching theories or concepts through play in digital simulations. Unlike
gamification, which is the layering of game mechanics on non-game
environments, DGBL calls for the direct use of digital games as
educational texts (game genres such as adventure, platformer, AI,
interactive fiction, mmorpg, sandbox, and more can be used). I assign
digital games in my college courses to provide students with safe, virtual
environments for engaging in playful problem solving, while cultivating
their creative and critical thinking skills.
One of my most well received DGBL assignments employs the first
person interactive fiction game, The Stanley Parable, for teaching the
philosophical theories of free will and determinism. The Stanley Parable is

a narrative-driven game that places the responsibility of choice on the

player. The premise of the game is simple: Stanley must make certain
choices in order to recall why he wakes up alone in an empty office
building. During gameplay, the player is constantly prompted by a nonvisible omniscient narrator to make certain choices, which according to
the narrator are pre-destined. The player must make some choices to
progress, but has the option of either following or ignoring the narrators
persistent, unsolicited advice. Several outcomes are possible depending
on the players choices.
To complete my DGBL assignment, my philosophy students must play
through The Stanley Parable, and write an analytical essay on whether or
not Stanley has free will. My students revealed that they felt the need to
conduct extensive research on free will and determinism to properly
analyze the game that they enjoyed. Essentially, I use the game to help
students recognize how philosophy applies to understanding the world,
and to raise the rigor of their writing. My students enthusiastic responses
make the game a must play in my philosophy courses.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY T. RAVEN MEYERS
Gamification techniques promote efficient learning by maximizing
user engagement in creative ways that traditional learning cannot
match. In our primary niche (medical education), medical students often
must endure academic torture by studying complex medical science
concepts through the traditional medium of organized study, including
attending boring classes, reading dense textbooks, and practicing
thousands of arduous vignettes.
While all students must go through this pathway, as indeed this is a rite of
passage for them, this process is clearly tedious and most students need
to set aside large blocks of time to process their material, often with low
retention rates. In early 2014, we released a medical gaming app called
Scrub Wars that uses action-themed gameplay to promote the retention
of high-yield clinical facts for their board and course exams. Studying for
exams was facilitated through an eLearning platform (through a mobile

iOS and Android app) using gamicifcation techniques (space shooter

game) and spaced repetition (concepts purposely repeated strategically
to promote long-term retention) to promote micro-learning (studying in
small chunks of time in situations that are generally poor study conditions,
such as waiting in line or in bed before sleeping) of high-yield material.
Traditionalists often scoff at the idea of using games to promote learning,
because they mistakenly assume that the educational program is a
substitute for learning through classroom and book study. If this criticism
is not immediately addressed through a strategic marketing campaign,
then the learning game is potentially doomed and will not get the
opportunity to demonstrate its effectiveness. Our company bypassed this
erroneous assumption (and the negative press that surely would have
followed) by aggressively promoting the app as a supplementary test
preparation method, instead of a replacement, to traditional methods of
study. Therefore, not only do study techniques that utilize gamification
techniques promote learning through an entertaining and engaging
medium, but proper marketing of the program as a compliment to
traditional study is a necessary prerequisite in order for it to be promoted
successfully.

What are the most effective uses of

Gamification in Learning?
BY VICKI KUNKEL
Gamification is most effective as part of a long-term business strategy. Its
not a one-off event (such as a game); rather, its applying game
mechanics (like motivation, rewards, recognition) to business challenges.
Gamification is most effective to affect behavior change or to increase
specific skills.
For example, last year I designed a gamification platform for an insurance
call center where the business challenge was customer retention, the
goal was one-call resolution, and the desired behavior changes were to
have call center agents stop putting customers on hold, stop transferring
calls, and strategically question and actively listen to customers. (Surveys

showed hold times and transfers were the top hot buttons for customers.)
Agents were split into teams, and team members earned points for each
time they did not transfer a call or place a customer on hold. Double
points were given if a customer complaint was resolved with one call.
The company used data to track the performance of each agent and a
leaderboard was automatically updated daily. Teams received super
powers attached to each level they achieved on the leaderboard. One
super power was Super Speed, where they could go right to the front of
any line (such as the cafeteria line). Another was Force Field, where
winners could park in the executive-only, temperature-controlled
underground garage. (This was a coveted power in both the cold winter
months and the hot summer months!) The top super power was
Invisibility which was a day off with pay for the ultimate top performers.
For agents who found themselves on the bottom of the leaderboard, the
platform would automatically populate short, two-minute Power Boosters
(video eLearning modules), which gave tips on strategic questioning and
listening skills to help agents better identify and solve customer issues on
one call.
Three months after the gamification project was implemented, call hold
times decreased by 17%; transfers were reduced by 52%, and customer
retention increased 31% over pre-gamification levels.